the title, which is, in fact, a perfect title for a lecture on the pastal mystery.

And it touches on a question that was absolutely at the heart of early Christian theology

in the first centuries of Christianity, particularly one's Christianity

was able to come out from underground and be available in a public way, in what was still,

however, culturally and intellectually, a largely pagan world in the fourth century. This was one of the fundamental questions that Christian

intellectuals had to address. How can you believe in a God who ends up on a cross? This is not what gods are supposed to do,

and certainly not philosophically respectable gods

who keep their distance from change and suffering.

So I'm going to touch on this a bit along the way,

but I want to begin by simply saying a little by way of definition concerning the

Paschal mystery.

Any time of the year is a good time to talk about the Paschal mystery, but certainly

during the octave of Easter, during this great week when we daily

rejoice in the resurrection of Christ that we celebrated at the Easter Vigil, and on Easter

Sunday, it's a particularly good time to speak about the PASCal mystery.

There are two terms here, obviously,

paschal and mystery, and each of them is important.

Pascal is a term that has a long lineage in the Western languages,

but it is ultimately rooted in the Hebrew word Pesak or Passover.

So the pascal mystery is the Passover mystery.

This immediately, of course, connects the Christian faith in Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection

to the history of Israel, and particularly, of course, the events

...